
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Master gunsmith James Morrison founded JM Gun Repair 46 years ago, after doing gun repairs in his garage. The gun shop has been a local institution ever since, offering firearms, black powder and reloading gear, ammunition including hard-to-find calibers, and James’ incredible skills as a master gunsmith with 50 years of experience. The business is ideally located, straddling the county line between Sarasota and Bradenton, Florida.
“This has been a family legacy for 46 years,” said James’ grandson, Noah Morrison. His father and uncle work at the shop too.
Noah, who just turned 21, dreamed of becoming the third generation of Morrisons to operate this family business. However, his dreams were dashed when George Hancock, an ATF Industry Operations Investigator, known as an IOI, walked into the shop at around the same time Joe Biden announced his war on “rogue” gun dealers.
“During the audit, he found faults in our paperwork,” Noah said. “In the past, for these types of minor faults, an auditor would have just handed us a pen and told us to fix them.”
Noah’s father, Benwayne Morrison, agrees.
“These were clerical errors, but they changed the definition,” he said. “Under their new definition, they said our violations were willful. After 46 years, we never gave a gun to someone who shouldn’t have it, but that didn’t matter. None of the violations were on Biden’s ‘rogue’ gun dealer list.”
Rogue Defined
Biden first announced his zero-tolerance policy in June 2021. Part of his scheme included five criteria, which he claimed defined a rogue dealer:
- transferring a firearm to a prohibited person
- failing to run a required background check
- falsifying records, such as a firearms transaction form
- failing to respond to an ATF tracing request
- refusing to permit ATF to conduct an inspection in violation of the law
However, the ATF is revoking licenses for the most minor of errors – errors not on Biden’s five-point list.
As a result, a special report we published in May revealed that FFL revocations increased a staggering 500 percent.
No Due Process
Effective Aug. 23, JM Gun Repair can no longer transfer or sell firearms. The family intends to keep the shop open, selling ammunition, reloading and black powder supplies, gear, and other accessories, but not guns or even gunsmithing services. They posted a note on their website announcing the changes.
“Our family legacy is gone,” Benwayne said. “My father started this business. A master gunsmith is a rare breed. He can tell you the details about a gun made 100 years ago. He’s still sharp as a tack. Our family was screwed over by the ATF.”
The worst part for him and his family is that there was no way to appeal the ATF’s order.
There was no due process.
Benwayne contacted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office but was told since it was a federal matter, he should contact Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott. Benwayne never received a response from Scott’s office. One of Rubio’s assistants told him to send more information, but he has not heard back.
Illegal Registry
Both Benwayne and Noah believe there is another unspoken reason why the ATF is revoking hundreds of FFLs. Anytime a gun shop closes or is ordered out of business, they must mail years of records to the ATF.
“They’re building a gun registry, and that’s illegal,” Benwayne said. “If you want to build a registry, the easiest way to do it is to have gun dealers supply their records. That’s the quickest way for them to find out who has what kind of guns. If they shut down a 46-year-old store that’s had thousands of sales, all of a sudden, they’ve got a lot of records.”
Neither Jason Medina, public information officer for ATF’s Tampa Field Division, nor Aaron Gerber, the Division’s Director of Industry Operations, returned calls seeking comment for this story.
Takeaways
It’s clear that the Biden-Harris administration believes if they eliminate all the gun dealers, they will eliminate all the guns. But since there is only a handful of real rogues out of the 50,000 licensed gun dealers doing business in the country, the administration had to devise another tactic. As a result, they came up with the “willful” scheme.
Now, even the most insignificant clerical error is a willful violation, which means the dealer is a rogue, and their license is quickly revoked. The ATF was happy to play along since they’ve always been more than willing to bend over for the White House, regardless of the constitutionality of the request.
The two hallmarks of the Morrison family business have always been safety and family. Benwayne used to train Boy Scouts. His father taught Hunter Safety classes. They educate every first-time gun buyer before they leave the shop.
“My parents could have retired years ago, but they wanted to keep the business going for their children and their grandchildren,” Benwayne said. “It’s frustrating to me that now my son Noah is old enough to be part of the family business, but he can’t. We’ve always been a law-abiding shop. We’ve done our best for nearly a half-century to educate the public and keep the public safe. So, if they can do this to us, they can do this to anybody.”
This story is presented by the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and wouldn’t be possible without you. Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support more pro-gun stories like this.
About Lee Williams
Lee Williams, who is also known as “The Gun Writer,” is the chief editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. Until recently, he was also an editor for a daily newspaper in Florida. Before becoming an editor, Lee was an investigative reporter at newspapers in three states and a U.S. Territory. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a police officer. Before becoming a cop, Lee served in the Army. He’s earned more than a dozen national journalism awards as a reporter, and three medals of valor as a cop. Lee is an avid tactical shooter.
Those who’ve had their FFLs revoked because of this policy for minor paperwork errors could band together as a class action lawsuit and challenge the definition of willful. I don’t think the policy would be able to stand if they did so.
RINO CONGRESSMEN are useless unless they can get money or fame by their action. The Communist Biden Regime and its Deep State Enablers are on a mission to turn the US into an American type of Soviet Union. They wont be stopped by elections and play to get along RINOS. Its going to take great sacrifice by many Americans to save this Republic and their is no guarantee they will defeat the communists. But to surrender to Communism is to give away your soul and liberties.
Last year a story was widely circulated about the Miami Police Department audit showing 25 missing AR-15 rifles, which is blamed on paperwork. I think audits of other state/local/federal government would show similar. Seems only fitting if you have a “zero policy” on errors it should not just be private sector but extend to those we taxpayers fund as well.
So, if the IRS gets 87K new hires (who must be required to carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force), and 750K rounds of ammunition courtesy of the demorats “Inflation Reduction BS”; then imagine what these ATF goons are going to be like! To all the clueless morons who facilitated this regime into power, I can only wish them free, rapid transportation to, and priority seating in HELL!
Sorry SOB Biden and the ATF needs to defeated at the polls this November. If it was not a sin to hate someone, BIDEN would be first on my list. ATF tried to set me up by sending me an illegal pistol through an intercepted package from the NRA that was a membership renewal What they failed to look at was my son was a Federal Marshal and I reported it to him the day I received the package with the gun in it and told my son that I was making an official notice to him because it was… Read more »
well, the left has been changing the definition of words lately and i guess this is just a re-definition of the word willfully, “with the intention of causing harm; deliberately”, that is the definition as opposed to clerical errors. how many of these clerical errors allowed a firearm to go to an unapproved buyer? how these government agents can go along with this regimes disrespect of the rule of law with this and recently with the raid at trumps home is unconscionable. following orders is not an excuse, you have no moral character or at least bad moral character s… Read more »
We never hear about the alcohol or tobacco parts of this tax collecting agency, and seldom about the explosives division. Does this tax collecting agency do any other thing besides harassing firearm dealers?
I’m thinking that the Biden Regime is sending a message that they can destroy anybody. The Biden handlers are sending this message through the BATFE, IRS, and Fat Boy Institute.
By any means necessary. That has been the credo of the Progressive New Left for nearly fifty years. By any means necessary they will achieve and maintain not just power but hegemony. By any means necessary they will suppress opposition. We are not dealing with ‘liberals’ here but dedicated Cultural Marxists. On issues ranging from vote security to personal security these subversives intend to neuter your rights and eliminate your voice and your means of self defense. This is an existential war. One side emerges victorious, one side does not emerge. Those are the stakes. So keep that in mind… Read more »
I would sue these POS at the ATF. All the way to the Supreme Court – F these commie pricks